Exploring Jamaican Students’ Readiness using the Grade One Cognitive Skills Assessment: A Psychometric Analysis

Children who are starting primary school (first grade) are described as being at a transitional phase characterized by a shift in their mental development. As part of the entry requirements to grade one, schools generally require students to participate in some sort of assessment. In the Jamaican context, entry to grade one requires students to participate in the Grade One Individual Profile (GOILP), however some students are not able to take the assessment because of the timing of the assessment. In such cases the GOILP cannot be considered a readiness assessment for those students. Having an alternative assessment - Grade One Cognitive Skills Assessment (GOCSA) could help teachers to determine students’ cognitive skills relevant to what should be learned at grade one. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship, construct and concurrent validity between the GOILP and the GOCSA that was developed as an alternative for use with grade one students. A cross-sectional design was utilized that assessed 238 students who were selected based on the consecutive sampling of their parents. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted for the constructs within the GOILP and the GOCSA. The results showed one component solution loading (.72 - .92) accounting for 74% of the total variance, while the GOCSA indicated four components solution (loadings .56–.89) accounting for 25% of the explained variance. Concurrent validity was established by testing the relationship between students’ scores on both instruments which found to both assessments had a moderate positive relationship (r = .58, p = .01). The findings suggest that the GOCSA measure can be used as an equivalent assessment to the GOILP.